Thank you so much! I enjoyed writing it so much, there were so many sexy elements but also complicated men to capture and lots of *feelings* because complicated creatures feel so much, don’t they? I am so glad you’re looking forward to reading it.

Jude Sierra’s “Hush,” an original novel for Interlude Press, is the story of Wren, a “gifted” man with the power to compel others’ feelings and desires, and Cameron, a naive college student who begins to understand his sexuality under Wren’s tutelage. Over time, Wren and Cameron grow to recognize new and unexpected things about themselves, leading to a shift in their power dynamic.

Artist zephyrianboom captures Wren and Cameron’s electric relationship in her lush cover art of one of their stolen moments in the library stacks.

Hush is scheduled for release in May 2015.

So incredibly thrilled to share with you guys what I’ve been working on for over a year now! I’m looking forward to finally being able to talk a little more these boys and their story in the coming months.

Lovely, lovely art — can we give zephyrianboom some kudos for that incredible art!

As you may have read before, NaNo is something I look forward to all year. It’s something I have “won” seven years (my only not “win” was when I had had a baby 2 months before, and that was more of me realizing on day 2 that it wasn’t for me). Anyway.

This year in the month of November, I had honestly so much to do, other people started asking me if I had elves in my pockets and how I managed to get any sleep. And because I have a very strict sleep schedule (sleep disorder management), and because almost 33 is too old for all-nighters, the truth is, I’ve dropped a lot of balls.

The first to go, about 8 days ago, was NaNo. At first I was too busy to really be upset, mostly because my attention was focused on getting the second edit of my novel done, which was just a *thing* because I was really, really stuck on fixing some pacing and structure issues. And this was thing #1 of about 10.

A couple of days ago I posted on another blog that I just didn’t know if I could finish NaNo. Yesterday I was actually actively upset. I was 10k words behind and I know I am just so busy the rest of this month picking up the other balls I dropped that I could not do it.

The other really hard factor here is that I am suffering from a lot of hand, wrist and elbow pain. It’s actually debilitating: it hurts to do everything, my fingers go numb, I can’t even hold a remote or a phone or drive a car by the end of most days.

So yes, extra typing just felt like an insurmountable obstacle. Yesterday I decided in my heart I was just going to give up, put NaNo away and be done with it.

And then I remembered how much I love the story I’m telling. And then I spoke to two of my very best friends and then read this post by my amazing editor and friend Annie, and they all really got me thinking.

I can throw in the towel because I don’t believe I can get to the 50k, or I can keep plugging away and know it did my best and that I fucking rule for trying my hardest despite the number at the end. And yeah, I want to get to the 50k, if only for the sake of a winning streak and a competitive spirit I have re: myself. If I get it? Happy birthday to me. If not? Happy birthday to me. (Literally. My birthday is Dec. 1st).

Yesterday and today I managed, through crazy pain (IDK what’s wrong with me), to make it to my new daily goal to catch up (2300 words each day). I have about 90% certainty I won’t be able to write Thursday – Saturday, so I might have to define a new normal. Or write 50 words and be proud of myself.

It’s okay. All of us who are in this crazy mix, especially those of us who are behind or swamped or just struggling — we’re fine. There was a story inside wanting to be told, and we started telling it.

The last seven days were intense, with a lot happening around my debut novel, Love Starved: I have just finished my third – penultimate – round of revisions. The beautiful cover designed for my book by the ever so talented Valerie was revealed. Soon, Advance Readers’ Copies will be ready to fly into the world, which means my story will actually become a book.

It’s surreal, looking back at the whole process and seeing how something as abstract as a simple idea evolves – through countless hours of planning and writing and editing – into something as real and magical as a book.

I’ve never been a one-story kind of girl; I always have at least three projects going on, and dozens of other ideas buzzing around at all times. On the magnetic board above my desk there is a sheet of paper with twenty-two story seeds noted down: those are the ones I was/am/will be working on in foreseeable future; those that are defined and more or less planned. Eight of those stories have been crossed out as completed since I put that paper up there. Eight are circled as those I’ve started and are in different stages of completion. The other six are planned, but untouched yet. Once upon a time, that ever-growing list contained only fanfiction ideas, but at some point, some of them started to have lives of their own.

The ideas come from everywhere: a shred of conversation heard in passing; song lyrics; a picture; a sentence read in a book or on the internet; a dream. There are themes that intrigue me and demand to be explored in writing: Magic. Mystery. Angels. Friendship. Dreams, and consequences of giving them up.

And, apparently, fantasies.

And I don’t just mean erotic fantasies, as the choice of an escort as one of the main characters in Love Starved may suggest – I mean anything we believe we can’t have; any desires and dreams we put aside as unrealistic, impossible, or too fantastic. Love Starved is not a story about sex (although, yes, there is some sex in there eventually). I took the well-known “high-class escort and a rich client” theme and played with it in my own way, spinning and twisting it into a tale about hope and dreams, hard choices and growing up.

I’m excited to share it with you, and to talk about the story I’ve had to keep quiet about for so long! Expect more news from the book front soon! 🙂

Naming characters is *so hard* for me. Sometimes I want names from a certain origin or that can be traced back. For example, when I named Wren (I had spoiler alerted y’all to that name in a picture a bit ago) for my upcoming book, I deliberately searched for names with mythical/lore/magical undertones. Any one of those would have sufficed. I found one and then took (borrowed?) another name derived from that. That was quite fun and totally satisfied what I wanted.

Sometimes, nothing fits the way I want though. Right now, I am knee deep in NaNo and still have not settled on a name for one of my main characters. I thought I had a name — which I borrowed from the list of names my husband and I had considered for our second son. I love the name. It has a cute nickname for a younger kid and it has a grown up full name.

Problem: I woke up yesterday, wrote 3000 words and the WHOLE TIME I had to keep going back because I was automatically naming him something *completely* different. I mean, it is from another name galaxy. It’s not even a name I like. It wasn’t on my radar.

But it feels right.

See, and here is an example of what I mean when I say that I am just the vessel. Sometimes I feel like the stories I write just come through me, that despite my intentions, they turn left when I planned for them to go right. My characters quite often they laugh at me and tell me to fuck off and insist that I do what they’re telling me is right. I guess this is why I am a pantser and not a planner.

RIght now, I’m in the *place*. Use a name I don’t like but that *seems* right, or go with the name I wanted?